Terror in Spain

Brown claims green groups 'outflanked' by loggers

By state political reporter Zoe EdwardsUpdated
Wed 8 May 2013, 3:20 PM AEST

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Bob Brown enters blame game over forest laws

7pm TV News TAS

The former leader of the Australian Greens believes green groups have signed up to a deficient forestry peace deal because they were outmanoeuvred by the logging industry.

Bob Brown claims Tasmanian Greens MPs had no choice but to back the forest peace deal bill.

Mr Brown had urged MPs to reject the bill, after the Legislative Council radically changed it.

Four of the five state Greens MPs backed the changes despite Mr Brown's opposition and that of national leader Christine Milne.

The move has split the Greens party and Tasmania's environmental movement.

He says the law passed by State Parliament attempts to silence environmentalists by giving politicians the power to block the creation of forest reserves if protests continue.

But Mr Brown is not criticising the four MPs who ignored him and gave Labor the numbers to turn the peace deal into law.

"This is part of the way in which parties mature. I think the Greens are getting bigger and will have different points of view, as do the Labor Party and Liberal Party."

Instead Mr Brown has blamed the environmental groups who negotiated the peace deal with the timber industry.

He says Greens MPs had not option but to support the bill.

"The Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Tasmania lost their way in this negotiating process and were outflanked by a good cop, bad cop routine from the logging industry," he said.

"The environment groups always expected that the Greens are their advocates in the Parliament and they put upon the Greens to pass this legislation to see what could come out of it and that what's the Greens in the State Parliament did.

"It doesn't make the mess that this forest agreement has become any the better."

Mr Brown is also blaming Labor for the passage of the heavily-amended peace deal bill.

"Lara Giddings didn't have the stomach to stand up to the Legislative Council," he said.

"The fact is the Greens don't have the numbers to create a block on the Legislative Council legislation and amendments.

"They either had to go with nothing and the environment groups were saying doing' do that, so they went with the environmental groups in that terrible situation."

Market campaign

Mr Brown says he is prepared to lobby against Tasmanian timber products in Japan, an action which could undermine the forest peace deal.

He says he will not be silenced.

"If the Japanese buyers ask me about taking products out of Tasmania I'll be telling them that you can't do that without your destroying the habitat of rare and endangered species," he said.

"I think many supporters of the Wilderness Society will be horrified at the prospect of it going to Japan to support the sale of Ta Ann's produce."